On 'Bessarabian Breakdown,' Jim Guttmann has assembled an all-star cast of klezmer talent that brings back that wonderful sense of rediscovering a warm, familiar friend infusing the best of the klezmer revival-era recordings of the 1970s and '80s.

The second of two klezmer music recordings by Itzhak Perlman featuring the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the Klezmatics, Brave Old World and Andy Statman, recorded live in New York City at Radio City Music Hall.

We wanted to call it Today We Are A Band but someone at the label didn't like that. This live recording at Boston's Berklee Performance Center has great energy, an enthusiasitc audience, a fabulous bass solo, my favosrite yiddish song - "Adese Mame" - and everyone else's favorite, "Rumenye, Rumenye."